Monday, May 6, 2013

Returning to normal...

We are back from Chicago, The Relay for Life is done.

I want to take this time to THANK the following people:: These very special individuals are near and dear to my heart. If it wasn't for each of you this relay wouldn't have been possible. I would have been walking the full 12 hours myself! :) So THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING!

Scott Larson

Vickie Johnson

Bannon Johnson

Katrina Johnson

Brinley Johnson

Breckin Brown

Ella Brown

Ashley Brown

Dustin Brown

Marsha Larson

Cathi Bell

Jen Pelletier

Matt Frantz

Audrey Frantz

Jesse Frantz

Amanda Frantz

Tammy Orletsky

Bri-Anne Lundell

Che Kelley

Malisa Caldwell

Jensen Caldwell

Hailee Caldwell

Madison Caldwell

Carson Caldwell

Dorothy Cook

Brittany Ford

Britney Schuster

Nathan Schuster

Paula Williams

I want to give an extra special THANK YOU to my mom for taking over while I was in Chicago and agreeing to take on the Relay had I not made it back in time. I really have the most amazing mother in the world. She continues to do things for me day in and day out. She is what all mothers should be. Endless amounts of love. THANK YOU MOM! :)

I have highlighted all the RELAY LIFERS as I like to call em...these are the true hardcore team members that stayed ALL NIGHT...From 5pm Saturday until 6am on Sunday. We were all crazy tired, seeing things, even saying things like "I only have this string to keep me warm and my suitcase is COLD" ha ha

I have never done a Relay for Life event before. It was such an amazing experience. We took THIRD in teams that raised the most amount of money! :) We raised $3500.00!!! That's just AWESOME!! I am so excited I could contribute SOMETHING to cancer research. I can only imagine had I not had so much going on I would have been able to dedicate more of my time to the Relay we would have been first place! There is always next year and that will be my goal. :) Our *STRENGTH*LOVE*COURAGE*

team was the ONLY team that actually walked the WHOLE ENTIRE 12 HOURS...We ended up with about 8 people that stayed all night out of our whole team, in the early morning hours it was tuff and touch and go there for awhile, but we made it!!!

I would like to ask those of you that haven't done a Relay for Life event before or even those of you that did the relay this year for the first time but were unable to stay the whole night to consider doing a Relay for Life event in the future, and dedicate your time. I know 12 hours is a lot to ask of one single person. I now you all have many things going on in your lives and 12 hours is just too much to ask of you. Please keep in mind, we cancer patients don't have the choice to just STOP fighting. Just STOP walking, just STOP all together, or cancer wins. Relay for Life is an exhausting event, I am not going to lie, but it gives you just a SMALL glimpse into how EXHAUSTING a day in the life of a cancer patient can be. The fights, struggles, exhaustion, weakness, the list goes on, but I promise YOU won't REGRET it. Keep it in mind for next year. I will be recruiting those HARDCORE lifers...you KNOW who you are and I THANK YOU WITH ALL MY BEING for helping me fight back against cancer.

Now on to doctors appointments, IVIG infusions, Bone Marrow biopsies and labs.

Today, I needed to call LTD, clean my house and find a place for all the Relay for Life crap, pay bills, make doctor appointments, Schedule the Bone Marrow biopsy, and for the IVIG. So much to do and I don't know where to start. First thing is first, I called LTD. I still haven't heard from LTD on if I was approved for not. This is going on three months without approval. Which means three months without pay. I called Rose bright and early and got the GREAT NEWS, I was APPROVED!! Even better news she tells me "did you not get the check?" Um...what check?? Ha Rose told me I should have a check in the mail, as they sent it out almost two weeks ago! WOW!! So I have been approved for TWO WEEKS, and nobody even called me to tell me I was approved! REAL NICE! So thankful I have my money! So the kids and I quick take a trip to the mailboxes and sure enough there is a check in the mail! Well I guess lesson learned I need to check my mail more often! Would have been handy while we were out of town. I finally got my house cleaned. Took me all day to do it, but I finally got it all done...My house is over run my Relay for Life crap! If any of you need or want a Relay Tee I have some is all sizes but Large. These are the shirts that we were given at the Relay, not the ones I made... :)

I got my doctor appointments all set up. I have labs and IVIG tomorrow and Wednesday both days at 10am at Dr. Borst's office. I still am not able to start my new oral chemo until Dr. Williams (my new gyn/onc) talks with Dr. Borst. I have been harping on Michele since Thursday and she says they still haven't touched base. I am starting to wonder if this co-management health care is going to be for me. I don't want to be spending all the time on the phone making sure this or that was done by this doctor or whatever. I say my prayers it all works out. For now I am still waiting for this conversation to happen so I can get started on my new chemo meds. Sooner rather than later would be nice.

I am scheduled for my BMBX on this Friday at 8am at Banner Desert. It will be about a 2 hour procedure. I had hopes to go to Show Low this weekend for Mother's Day and I still hope that is possible. Banner Desert does tell me this shouldn't be an issue, but I might have to go up Saturday for the day instead of Friday. The BMBX is going to tell us if I have any cancer in the bone. My PET SCAN was clear of anything in the bone, and my labs don't indicate bone cancer, but we have to rule this out before we can fully agree it's ITP.

I have decided with the news of my scans, and that CTCA is sure the cancer has metastasized to the lungs I am going to opt NOT to do the lung biopsy that Dr. Bibb is wanting to do. The chemo I am going to be taking is going to effect the lungs and the cancer anywhere in my body, there is no reason for me to do a biopsy. I just need to get the ITP under control and the IVIG will help with that. This week is going to be a long week. I was so looking forward to just hanging out with Breckin and Ella this week. That's out. I'll only see them Monday and Thursday. POOP! Tata isn't happy about that.